Hello gang,

Here is an update. What is new here is that all the texts have been scanned other than the ones in Tears of Sorrow. In addition, an unpublished article by Shana Roskies has been added.

You can read the actual text by clicking on the underlined/hyperlinked text next to the word Content: for each item.

Again you have the opportunity to vote or comment. Last time I posted this only Lori responded. Let me know what you think.

This list is sorted first by category and then by type.

Shai

 

Abortion/Entire Ritual doc#:47
Title: Abortion: A Ritual upon Termination of a Pregnancy
Author: Leila Berner
Source: Lifecycles: Jewish Women on Life Passages and Personal Milestones, ed. Rabbi Debra Orenstein. Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, Vermont. 1994
Content: berner.doc

Description: A ritual for a woman who has had an abortion. Includes sections on “Affirming One’s Choices, Sharing the Pain, Affirming One’s Self, Surviving and Being Thankful, Seeking Healing.”

Comment:

Abortion/Entire Ritual doc#:100
Title: Ritual for grief following therapeutic loss
Author: Rabbi Amy Eilberg
Source: Tears of Sorrow, pp. 99-101
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: Ritual for couple who is grieving loss of child from therapeutic abortion

Comment:

Abortion/Introduction doc#:46
Title: Silent Seasons
Author: Leila Berner
Source: Lifecycles: Jewish Women on Life Passages and Personal Milestones, ed. Rabbi Debra Orenstein. Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, Vermont. 1994
Content: 46.doc

Description: Essay which emphasizes the importance of responding “ritually and Jewishly” to the often unshared experiences of abortion and sexaul abuse.

Comment:

Abortion/Prayer doc#:98
Title: Prayer to be said when preparing for the end of the pregnancy
Author: ?
Source: Tears of Sorrow, pp.97-98
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: Prayer to be said when pregnancy must be ended therapeutically.

Comment:

Abortion/Song/Poem doc#:99
Title: A lullaby for courage
Author: Debbie Perlman
Source: Tears of Sorrow, pp.98-99
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: “A new psalm for the woman to say when she goes to end her pregnancy or when labor begins.”

Comment:

Fertility/Article doc#:6
Title: Liberating Reproduction From Despair
Author: Allen Selis
Source: Tikkun Vol. 14, No.3
Content: selis.doc

Description: Article includes reflection on Talmud passage (Balvi, Niddah 31a) and the Iggeret Hakodesh, a mystical text offering a “path for sanctifying sprituality”. Ends with a brief ritual which preceeds IVF.

Comment:

Fertility/Article doc#:112
Title: Hayyei Sarah
Author: Shana Roskies
Source: unpublished
Content: 112.doc

Description: Roskies brings to life the Genesis tale of Sarah, Abraham and Hagar by placing Sarah and Abraham’s infertility as the central factor motivating the characters’ behavior.

Comment:

Fertility/Entire Ritual doc#:66
Title: Seder Kabbalat Ahkaroot: Accepting the Loss of the Dream for a Biological Child
Author: Bonnie and Lawrence Baron
Source: A Ceremonies Sampler: New rites, Celebrations, and Observances of Jewish Women. Women’s Institute for Continuing Jewish Education. 1991. pp. 47-54
Content: baron.doc

Description: Ceremony that deals addresses a person or couple deciding to give up on coceiving a biological child.

Comment:

Fertility/First Person Account doc#:31
Title: A Longing for Children
Author: Julie Stockler
Source: Moment, October 1993
Content: stockler.doc

Description: Personal essay on grieving the inability to bear children. Author in dialog with deceased grandmother about whether she has the permission to mourn.

Comment:

Fertility/Introduction doc#:51
Title: Give Me a Child: Prayers for Conception
Author: Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
Source: Tears of Sorrow pp.35-37
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: Introductory essay on the emotional and spiritual struggles of infertility.

Comment:

Fertility/Prayer doc#:102
Title: A prayer for the wonder of our bodies
Author: ?
Source: Tears of Sorrow, p.104
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: “This prayer form the morning service expresses awe at the intricate workings of the human body. It may be recited before or after an examination or a procedure.”

Comment:

Fertility/Prayer doc#:104
Title: Prayers to be said before a procedure
Author:
Source: Tears of Sorrow, pp.107-108
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: Biblical verses form three prayers “to be said before a procedure”, “Verses to be said upon insemination” and “Verses to be recited upon arising from a procedure.”

Comment:

Fertility/Prayer doc#:107
Title: Prayer to be said while waiting
Author:
Source: Tears of Sorrow, p.111
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: As the title describes, this is a prayer to be said while waiting to conceive and bear a child.

Comment:

Fertility/Prayer doc#:103
Title: Prayers to be said before an examination
Author: Adapted from Psalm 121 and Psalm 20, Michelle Goldsmith, Tikva Frymer-Kensky
Source: Teras of Sorrow, pp. 104-107Four prayers that may be said before a medical exam for those undergoing fertility treatment/counseling. Includes two prayers taken from the psalms, a prayer by Michelle Goldsmith, and “As the creation of Eve” by Tikva Frymer-Kensky
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description:

Comment:

Fertility/Prayer doc#:13
Title: Hannah’s Prayer
Author: Berakhot 31b Translated by Nina Beth Cardin, 1982
Source: From the files of: The AJCongress Feminist Center, 6505 Wilshire Blvd., #417, Los Angeles, CA 90048
Content: cardinshannah.doc

Description: “If I am an angel, then let me live forever. But if I am mortal, then grant me a child...”

Comment:

Fertility/Prayer doc#:42
Title: Prayer for Those Having Difficulty Conceiving
Author: Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
Source: Lifecycles: Jewish Women on Life Passages and Personal Milestones, ed. Rabbi Debra Orenstein. Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, Vermont. 1994
Content: cardin.doc

Description: A prayer based on Song of Songs and Psalm 22 for those having difficulty conceiving “phrased in the plural and written in the voice of a married couple. It is easily adaptable for an infertile person to say on her or his own.”

Comment:

Fertility/Ritual Element doc#:56
Title: Prayers and rituals for a Friday Night
Author:
Source: Tears of Sorrow pp. 42-46
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: Two prayers “To be Said Upon Candlelighting” and a “Wine Ritual for Friday Nights” are woven into text which reflects on Shabbat and the desire for conception.

Comment:

Fertility/Ritual Element doc#:105
Title: Prayers of Love
Author:
Source: Tears of Sorrow, pp. 108-109
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: A brief ritual and reading for husband and wife to nurture their love while using medical intervention for fertility.

Comment:

Fertility/Ritual Element doc#:106
Title: A Red Stone
Author:
Source: Tears of Sorrow, pp.109-110
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: Describes the tradition of the red stone which women have historically worn as a “tangible expression of their hopes and fears.”

Comment:

Fertility/Ritual Element doc#:58
Title: Segulot: Fertility Folkways
Author: Nina Beth Cardin with others
Source: Tears of Sorrow pp. 49-52
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: Essay on fertility folkways includes description of two rituals (Tzedakah and Ritual for Changing one’s Name) for improving chances of conception and healthy pregnancy.

Comment:

Fertility/Ritual Element doc#:49
Title: Mikveh prayers: a cool, private place
Author: Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
Source: Tears of Sorrow pp.30-33
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: Essay on the practice of going to a mikveh as it relates to desire for conception. Includes two prayers “A prayer for a child- to be said before entering the mikveh” and “A prayer for the woman to say as she is dressing to return home.”

Comment:

Fertility/Song/Poem doc#:60
Title: The Stain
Author: Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin with Jane Schapiro and Lynne Levin
Source: Tears of sorrow, pp. 68-70
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: Three contemporary poems addressing “the stain” of blood which when trying to get pregnant “becomes a sign of failure, of sadness, of emptiness, of death.” Poems included: “Tapping a Stone” by Jane Schapiro; “A Prayer for a woman in search of comfort” and “The Bath” both by Lynn E. Levin.

Comment:

Fertility/Song/Poem doc#:108
Title: Remembering Our Love: Prayers for Husband and Wife
Author: Rabbie Nina Beth Cardin
Source: Tears of Sorrow, pp.113-115
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: “Some nights are for rest, whether through medical direction or inclination. Let these nights, then, be for quiet and tenderness, for the presence of each other, and for the comfort of now.” Poems and blessings for those nights follow.

Comment:

Fertility/Song/Poem doc#:52
Title: Round
Author: Rachel Boimwall
Source: Tears of Sorrow pp.37-38
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: A contemporary poem on the desire to conceive.

Comment:

Fertility/Song/Poem doc#:55
Title: If I had a Son
Author: Rahel Bluwstein
Source: Tears of Sorrow p.42
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: Contemporary prayer on desire for a son.

Comment:

Fertility/Song/Poem doc#:53
Title: The Key
Author: Tikva Frymer-Kensky
Source: Motherprayer, The Pregnant Woman’s Spiritual Companion, by Tikva Frymer-Kensky Riverhead Books, 1995 pp. 21-22
Content: 53.doc

Description: Contemporary poem/prayer for conception.

Comment:

Miscarriage/ doc#:29
Title: Prayer Upon Miscarriage
Author: Tikva Frymer-Kensky
Source: Motherprayer, The Pregnant Woman’s Spiritual Companion, by Tikva Frymer-Kensky Riverhead Books, 1995 pp. 68-9
Content: kenskyloss.doc

Description: A contemporary prayer which draws on the imagery of the destruction of the Temple and the language of the Psalms.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Article doc#:40
Title: Understanding Your Pregnancy Loss: Coping with Miscarriage, Stillbirth or Newborn Death
Author:
Source: Pregnancy Loss Support Program of the National Council of Jewish Women New York section and the Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York City
Content: pregloss40.doc

Description: Pamphlet which guides parents through the emotional and practical terrain which follows the death of a baby due to stillbirth, miscarriage or newborn death.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Article doc#:79
Title: Technology and Background Information
Author:
Source: Bittersweet... hello, goodbye. pp.1-19...1-21
Content: 79.doc

Description: Essay which includes “definitions relating to pregnancy losses’’; describes the “phases of attachment” to fetus and child during pregnancy and after birth; and closes with sections describing “phases of mourning” and “typical behaviors of grief”.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Article doc#:82
Title: Suggestions for Those Reaching Out to the Bereaved
Author:
Source: Bittersweet, p.1-24
Content: 82.doc

Description: Essay which helps care-givers, and loved ones reach out to those who are grieving the loss of a baby due to miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Article doc#:64
Title: Three Responses to Miscarriage
Author: Debra Reed Blank, Amy Eilberg, Marvin Goodman
Source: Wrestling with the Angel: Jewish Insights on Death and Mourning, Jack Riemer Ed. Schocken, 1995. pp. 271-276
Content: threerabbis.doc

Description: Three Rabbis Discuss Critique Halakhic Approach to Misscarriage

Comment:

Miscarriage/Article doc#:5
Title: A Ceremony of Remembering, Mourning and Healing After Miscarriage
Author: Lois Dubin
Source: Kerem 4: 5756 (Winter 95-96)
Content: dubin.doc

Description: Essay begins with reflection on the need for a ritual for miscarriage. Description of ritual includes elements from Havdalah, Kiddush Levanah, Jewish Mourning rituals and symbolic acts. Essay closes with reflection on the ritual itself.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Article doc#:41
Title: Infertility and Early Losses
Author: Rabbi Debra Orenstein
Source: Lifecycles: Jewish Women on Life Passages and Personal Milestones, ed. Rabbi Debra Orenstein. Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, Vermont. 1994
Content: orenstein35.doc

Description: Essay describes how modern medicine and the Jewish “tradition itself create a dilemma for Jews who suffer infertility and pregnancy loss.” Offers an outline of mourning rituals that follow.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Entire Ritual doc#:45
Title: A Grieving Ritual Following Miscarriage or Stillbirth
Author: Amy Eilberg
Source: Lifecycles: Jewish Women on Life Passages and Personal Milestones, ed. Rabbi Debra Orenstein. Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, Vermont. 1994
Content: eilberg.doc

Description: A ritual divided into three parts: Mourning the Loss, Choosing Life Again and Communal Support and Blessings. Contemporary with selections in Hebrew taken from the Psalms, Job, and Deuteronomy.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Entire Ritual doc#:22
Title: Memorial Service For Miscarriage, Stillborn, or Infant who Dies Before Thirty days of Age
Author: Rabbi Judith Z. Abrams
Source: AJCongress files
Content: abrams.doc

Description: Short, complete, ritual.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Entire Ritual doc#:4
Title: Ritual for Loss of Pregnancy
Author: Rabbi Shira Stern
Source: Rabbi Shira Stern 38 Longfellow Terrace Morganville, NJ 07751
Content: stern.doc

Description: Template for service to mourn all kinds of pregnancy loss.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Entire Ritual doc#:12
Title: Finding Comfort After a Miscarriage
Author: Susan Grossman
Source: Daughters of the King: Women and the Synagogue ed by susan Grossman and Rivka Hunt, The Jewish Publication Society, 1992
Content: 12.doc

Description: Complete ritual included with personal introduction.

Comment:

Miscarriage/First Person Account doc#:81
Title: A Letter of Comfort For the Newly Bereaved
Author: Bereaved Parents of SHARE
Source: Bittersweet, p. 1-22
Content: 81.doc

Description: A letter written to parents who have lost a child from other parents who have experienced a similar loss.

Comment:

Miscarriage/First Person Account doc#:62
Title: Neonatal Death
Author: Susan Knightly
Source: Wrestling with the Angel: Jewish Insights on Death and Mourning, Jack Riemer Ed. Schocken, 1995. pp. 265-267
Content: knightly.doc

Description: Personal account of a couple holding, burying, and then sitting shiva (traditional Jewish mourning practice) for a baby delivered at five months.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Introduction doc#:59
Title: Mourning Loss
Author: Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
Source: Tears of Sorrow, pp.67-68
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: Essay on the spiritual and emotional issues one encounters when facing pregancy loss or stillbith.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Prayer doc#:95
Title: Sing us a Lullaby
Author:
Source: Tears of Sorrow, pp.81-82
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: “A prayer for the husband and wife to say during the first month of the loss.”

Comment:

Miscarriage/Prayer doc#:96
Title: Living waters
Author:
Source: Tears of Sorrow, pp.83-84
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: A prayer to be said before a woman enters the waters of the mikveh or a bath.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Prayer doc#:43
Title: Prayer After Miscarriage or Stillbirth
Author: Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
Source: Lifecycles: Jewish Women on Life Passages and Personal Milestones, ed. Rabbi Debra Orenstein. Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, Vermont. 1994
Content: sasso.doc

Description: Prayer combining contemporary words and Hebrew from the High Holy Day Amidah (standing silent prayer).

Comment:

Miscarriage/Prayer doc#:44
Title: After a Miscarriage: Hold Me Now
Author: Vicki Hollander
Source: Lifecycles: Jewish Women on Life Passages and Personal Milestones, ed. Rabbi Debra Orenstein. Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, Vermont. 1994
Content: hollander.doc

Description: A contemporary prayer to Hayotzer, “one of the seventy names of God..translated roughly as “One who fashions, forms, creates.”

Comment:

Miscarriage/Song/Poem doc#:80
Title: When My Baby Died
Author: Barbara Daniels
Source: Bittersweet, p.1-21
Content: 80.doc

Description: Poem describing author’s response to death of her baby.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Song/Poem doc#:25
Title: Healing After a Miscarriage
Author: Merle Feld
Source: Four Centuries of Jewish Women’s Spirituality, Umansky p. 221-2
Content: 25.doc

Description: “I want no platitudes, no stupid shallow comfort. I hate all pregnant women, all new mothers, all soft babies.” The anger is wonderfully honest in this poem.

Comment:

Miscarriage/Song/Poem doc#:94
Title: To the baby I never had to the memory that I carry.
Author: Reba Carmel
Source: Terar of Sorrow, pp.80-81
Content: Not yet scanned/typed

Description: A woman mourns the child she lost.

Comment:

Pregnancy/Article doc#:17
Title: Pregnant? Don’t Eat Radishes
Author: Emily Taitz
Source: Lilith Fall 1991
Content: 17.doc

Description: Article describes charms, prayers and customs that Jewish women adopted over-time to help ensure a safe pregnancy and delivery.

Comment:

Pregnancy/Entire Ritual doc#:28
Title: Ritual for Affirming and Accepting Pregnancy
Author: Tikva Frymer-Kensky
Source: Daughters of the King: Women and the Synagogue ed by susan Grossman and Rivka Hunt, The Jewish Publication Society, 1992
Content: frymer.doc

Description: Includes section where the perspective mother commits to taking care of herself.

Comment:

Pregnancy/Prayer doc#:27
Title: With All My Heart
Author: Judy Shanks
Source:
Content: 27.doc

Description: A prayer of hope.

Comment:

Pregnancy/Ritual Element doc#:26
Title: On Learning of a Pregnancy
Author: Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
Source:
Content: 26.doc

Description: Short reading divided into parts for the couple and the mother to be recited upon learning of conception.

Comment:

Stillbirth/Article doc#:36
Title: A Midwife’s Kaddish
Author: Diane Solomon
Source: Lilith, Summer 1990
Content: solomon.doc

Description: Personal essay on auathor’s journey and that of her Unitarian husband through stillbith delivery and burial of child.

Comment:

Stillbirth/Article doc#:30
Title: What Should Jewish Ritual Practice be Following a Stillbirth?
Author: Rabbi Stephanie Dickstein
Source: http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/diduknow/responsa/hatesh_confront.shtml
Content: dickstein.htm

Description: Argument for fuller ritual response for stillbirth. Author makes argument based on the Conservative movement’s decision to make parents mourners for children who die less than 31 days of age.

Comment:

Stillbirth/Entire Ritual doc#:9
Title: Memorial Service for Our Baby and a Reawakening of Hope
Author: Susanah/Ted
Source: Unpublished
Content: susanahted.doc

Description: Complete ceremony of a specific couple.

Comment:

Stillbirth/First Person Account doc#:63
Title: Baby Brother’s Gone to Heaven
Author: Anne-Lynne Keplar
Source: Wrestling with the Angel: Jewish Insights on Death and Mourning, Jack Riemer Ed. Schocken, 1995. pp. 268-271
Content: keplar.doc

Description: Description by a mother of her six-year-old son’s response to the death of his stillborn brother.

Comment:

Stillbirth/First Person Account doc#:83
Title: To My Special Friend
Author: Donna Fitzgerald
Source: Bittersweet, p. 1-29
Content: 83.doc

Description: Letter from a woman who is grieving the death of her son to a close friend who has helped her through the time of loss.

Comment:

Stillbirth/First Person Account doc#:84
Title: A Mother’s Thoughts on Rituals and Keepsakes
Author: Karen Davis
Source: Bittersweet, 1-37
Content: 84.doc

Description: Short essay which describes the small rituals and rememberances that one mother found helpful in grieving the death of her stillborn daughter.

Comment:

Stillbirth/First Person Account doc#:86
Title: Family Farewell
Author: Rene Cruickshank-Chase
Source: Bittersweet, pp.2-18..2-19
Content: 86.doc

Description: Personal essay on a woman’s grieving her stillborn daughter. Describes the ritual family and friends shared together. Follows with a poem to her daughter.

Comment:

Stillbirth/First Person Account doc#:61
Title: I Lost a Child But Did Not Mourn Her
Author: Ron Wolfson
Source: Wrestling with the Angel: Jewish Insights on Death and Mourning, Jack Riemer Ed. Schocken, 1995. pp. 262-265
Content: wolfson.doc

Description: Personal account describing the author’s experience of stillbirth before rituals were developed to encourage mourning.

Comment:

Don't forget to include your name: